Doubts on progress and technology

Build your own pedal powered machines

Pedal powered machines could be a valuable backup solution to intermittent renewable energy sources like solar and wind. Human power is available 24 hours per day, is not affected by changes in the weather, is portable and can easily be stored for later use.

Instructables has step-by-step instructions for the nut sheller of the Full Belly Project. The manual can also be inspiring to build other pedal powered machines. Instructables also has a couple of manuals for building a pedal powered blender, a detailed plan and two concisemanuals for converting your bike to a bike powered electricity generator, and a manual for converting an exercise bike into a generator.

"The Dynapod: a pedal power unit", Alex Weir, 1980. This book (pdf) contains plans for a universal pedal powered machine that can be used to drive many different appliances. Read more about it here. Somewhat obsolete but inspiring.

"The Human-Powered Home: Choosing Muscles Over Motors", Tamara Dean, 2008. This book contains, apart from a history of human powered machines, about a dozen of building plans for pedal powered machines. Most of them have a direct mechanical transmission, but there is also a plan for an electricity generator. It is probably the best collection of plans available at the moment, but a good knowledge of English is required since there are few technical drawings.